


quick thinking

by assassin_trifecta



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M, my ideas for s4 were better and CW can both fight me and hire me when i win, season 4 fix it, slowest burn i can possibly write before i get impatient, someone should have fucking told jesse, this is the hill i die on, you can pry Johnny Quick out of my cold dead hands
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-15 16:28:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14793989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/assassin_trifecta/pseuds/assassin_trifecta
Summary: Cisco falls hopelessly in love all over again, Harry figures it out too late, and Jesse has had enough of being left out of the loop. Can she fix her father fast enough DeVoe never saw it coming, or will the Enlightenment take her chance away?- A Season 4 fix it





	1. dam

Cisco finds him with his bag on the workbench, angrily passing over an assortment of gathered gadgets and unfinished projects. There are already clothes in the bag, and Cisco can see the corner of Harry's toolbox poking out from the duffel. Harry never packed his toolbox - he knew he would always return to use it. When Cisco took a closer look he could see the years old sweaters, projects he had started and finished and left around since Zoom. Things that Harry had always returned to, no matter how long he was gone, because he was a part of this team, and he knew he was loved.

"You're leaving." Cisco says it plainly, as though the thought doesn't scrape his heart out from the inside and leave him feeling hollow. _Another one lost, another_ _friend_ _gone to DeVoe's machinations._ Cisco can't help but wonder if the Thinker had planned this. He was sure that someone must have.

"Yes." Harry speaks plainly in return. He was never one to mince his words. His heart twists at the thought of going. These people have always helped him, between finding Jesse and getting a hold on her powers and saving his life so many times he can't count it anymore. He feels bad for the hollowness he hears in Cisco's tone, but he can't be upset. There are more important things to worry about. It's getting harder to concentrate on his tasks. He remembers telling the team he completes them, but lately things have been harder to finish.

"I have a daughter, Cisco," he continues, much softer now. "I'd like to see her again before I forget her completely." Jesse deserved more from him. He had done this to himself, and as far as he knew, there was no turning back. He'd like to prepare her, at least. For his downfall, the loss of his mind. Her mother's shares in the company had been held for Jesse, and now that she was of age, Harry would need to prepare her for taking on the duties that he was leaving her with his shares as well. CEO at least, President if the board didn't stiff her.

But most importantly, he would like to see her before she was gone from him completely. It wasn't fair to foist this upon her shoulders, to give her a declining father when they had just come back together, but he had few other options.

"You think she deserves to see you like this?" Harry had almost forgotten Cisco's presence behind him before the younger engineer spoke. Harry wasn't sure if it was because of Cisco's silence or that he had simply forgotten his presence. He didn't want to think about that.

"You think she really needs to see her father falling apart like this?" His tone was upset, angry, even, but it didn't compare to the hot flare of rage that passed through Harry at the suggestion.

"I'm sorry, Ramon, do _you_ have kids?" Harry asked, slamming the wrench he had in his hand down onto the work bench, causing both Cisco and the remaining projects to jump slightly under the force of it. He finally turned, facing Cisco's upset with the weight of his own. He wasn't sure which was worse, watching Cisco's crumble or feeling his fall with it. "No? That's what I thought. I'd like to give mine the last chance to see me at all, thanks."

"She can see you when we fix you." Cisco asserted, reminding Harry once again that they didn't have the time or resources to complete _that_ particular task. "And then she wouldn't have to know anything happened at all!" He presented the option like the optimist that Harry knew he was at heart. Too good, still full of too much hope despite the world that tried to hollow him out. He sounds so sure of himself, and Harry almost can't bring himself to tell Cisco how stupid that sounds.

Almost.

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard you say." As if Cisco hasn't borne witness to the difficult fallout between Harry and his daughter. The one that came from their lack of open communication and culminated in being kicked off of his own earth. He gave Cisco a baleful stare, daring him to go further with his absolute worst idea.

"It doesn't have to be, Harry." Cisco speaks softly, stepping further into the workshop so he's finally standing with Harry. He places his hand over the other's, and there's something in his eyes that Harry can't place. It hurts to look at almost as much as it hurts Cisco to see Harry preparing to leave. "Look, Harry," his level doesn't change but there's something added to the soft tone that Harry can't quite dial in on. "We're not going to let anything happen to you."

Harry doesn't want to hear it. He knows he's at fault for what he's done, knows it's his problem to fix. He doesn't want to worry Cisco further. Instead, he shakes the hand from his own, forcing himself to keep looking at his bag as he packs so he can't see the hurt in Cisco's eyes. If he doesn't look he can't be held accountable for the way Cisco's hopeful expression curdles from the sour of Harry's rejection. He focuses on packing, expecting Cisco to leave him to his misery after he's made it clear he can't stay.

He doesn't. Cisco stares up at him still, and Harry can feel his eyes, boring into him every single second they don't speak. By the time he parts his lips he feels hollow, burned out from the inside, his brains and guts and everything sliding out through the hole Cisco's eyes have cut into him. He's about to speak when Cisco does, instead.

"So we bring her here." He says it so simply. Harry's head snaps to the side, finally facing Cisco with a glare in his eyes. To his credit, Cisco doesn't even falter. "You want to spend time with Jesse, but we need you here, Harry. So there's your solution." As if it's the easiest thing in the multiverse. "We'll bring her here."

"That idea is even worse."

"Oh come on, Harry!" Cisco throws his hands up in frustration, and Harry flinches. He supposes it's right, after all the times he's made Cisco do the same. But unlike him, Cisco softens out immediately when he sees what he's done. So much good, so much gentle in one person. Guilt gnaws at what's left of Harry's insides after they've fallen to the floor. He should have been better to Cisco. He deserves so much more than what Harry has given him.

"You've got to be kidding me," Cisco huffs it out in one long breath, hand passing through his hair in evident frustration. He tugs on the ends and Harry recognizes the reaction as one of his own that Cisco has picked up in their years together. "So what, you want to see your daughter, be with your family in your last moments, but not here, right? Not the family you have here. Not the family that took you in when you had no one else? Is that it?"

"Cisco-"

"No, don't 'Cisco' me with those sad eyes, Harry-"

"I'm not-"

"Not what, Harry, not what?"

"I'm-" desperation laces his tone. He's not ready to say this.

"Not what?" Cisco's voice has raised in something between anger and upset.

"I'm not useful here anymore!" The words rip out of him almost against his will, the bullet of his anger triggered by Cisco's own. The pause that follows is heavy with the frustration, the upset, the pain in Harry's words and tone bouncing off of the cold walls of the workshop. Cisco stares in silence and Harry almost doesn't want to continue. "I'm on this team because of what I've built up my entire life." He's forcing the words out, like it hurts to speak them, and Cisco wants to tell him to shut up and not have to put himself through this, but it's the first time he's heard the man open up about emotions that don't involve his daughter or wife. This is Harry's emotions, plain and simple, and it's stunning to hear.

"My brain, Cisco," Harry continues, voice distraught as a flood of emotions breaks a dam that's been reinforced for decades. "That's all I am here- that's all I ever was to this team." He kept himself at arms length when he came here, to stop any emotional bond that might form. To keep himself from caring about this earth. It didn't work, not for him. But for the team it did. No one wanted to deal with cranky old Harry Wells. "And what am I without that, Cisco? Allen is the Flash- Snow is a brilliant doctor and Killer Frost, Iris is- amazing! And you-" his voice breaks, and there's emotions there he can't let out. Cisco's breath hitches on the pause, and he doesn't know why he's so nervous for Harry to continue. "You're so brilliant, Cisco," he whispers it, certain that if he speaks at volume he won't be able to control the cracking of voice or the threat of tears. "You're Vibe and you- you can do anything." He repeats his introduction of Cisco to that idiot HR, shaking out a watery laugh. "So what am I in the face of all of that? I'm- I'm just Harry. I have a brain and I fill in for tech you haven't advanced to yet." As soon as Cisco is ready, Harry would be useless anyway.

"You don't need me here, Cisco," he finishes, deflating after the exhaustion of an emotional revelation the likes of which he hasn't had since his wife was alive. "Not like this. Not anymore."

Cisco waits until Harry is clearly finished, until the silence is too loud and the older man's fidgeting with the ends of his sleeve becomes unbearable to watch. He doesn't know what to say in the face of a revelation that's nailed him in a head on collision. But this is Harry, his friend. So he has to try.

"You know, that's a pretty bullshit excuse." He thinks maybe Harry would appreciate the frankness with which he speaks, but Cisco can tell by the older man's flinch that these words aren't the right ones. Harry takes a step back, buries himself into putting his things into his bag more vigorously than before and Cisco curses his mouth. "Harry," he continues, stepping forward and laying a hand on the man's shoulder. "All I meant is that- I mean- that's not all you're here for."

Harry's shoulder is warm under Cisco's touch. He's grown used to the heat of persons from other earths. They haven't had time to deal with much of the fun multiverse science that Cisco would like to do now that he's got better control of his powers, but he's suspected for a while now - after HR's erratic frequencies - that the further the dimension from Earth One, the higher the natural frequency of the being. It makes them warmer here on this Earth, vibrating at a higher frequency so they give off more heat. But the warmer their body, the colder the outside temperatures feel. Harry mostly always wears a sweater, and Cisco can feel the heat radiating off of him where his hand meets Harry's shoulder over the soft fabric. It's a warmth he's grown comfortable with working so closely at his side, one he misses when Harry isn't there. One he would miss forever if he decided to leave.

"You're our friend, Harry," Cisco speaks only when he's certain that his own voice won't break from emotion he hasn't put thought in yet. "We care about you." It feels insincere to say, but he doesn't want to scare Harry off after he's just opened up, perhaps for the first time to someone that isn't his daughter. "Harry, you're so much more to us than just your brain. Hey- who marathons with me and doesn't think it's weird when I know way more about Pon Farr rituals than strictly necessary?"

Cisco can swear he sees Harry's cheeks flush pink when he mumbles a quiet "Me" in response.

"And who brought me a backpack full of my favorite discontinued gum last time he went back to his Earth even though it made him late to an important board meeting?"

"Me."

"And who was there to get ice-cream with me when I has my tonsils removed and was down for the solid food count for a week?"

Harry's expression - a slowly forming smile that Cisco was always blessed to see - turned sour as he remembered.

"... Allen."

"Yeah, but _you_ remembered my favorite flavor and kept the break room freezer stocked so I wouldn't feel left out when everyone else was eating lunch together." Cisco smiles and he can see the sun come back to Harry's expression, the flush back in his cheeks and the relief back in his eyes. Cisco could see Harry knew where he was going with this.

"You're valuable here, Harry," Cisco finished, squeezing Harry's shoulder once before he takes his hand back, just barely letting it linger down the older man's arm before he's leaning against the work bench again. "We need you here. So let's call Jesse, explain the situation to her, to the team. And work on putting you back together again. Okay?"

Harry still looks uncomfortable, and Cisco can't blame him. He's just made up with his daughter and now he has to tell her he's got some form of self inflicted neurodegenerative disorder that they don't know how to heal yet.

"Cisco," he whispers, looking down at his feet and clearly uncertain. "On my own time?"

It hurts. Cisco wants to tell Harry that they don't have that kind of time for him to deal with this when he's deteriorating so quickly- especially when Devoe is breathing down their necks. But Harry has pushed himself to the emotional limit, one that Cisco has never seen before. He isn't about to push further. Not right now, at least.

"Yeah, buddy," Cisco smiles at him, and Harry manages something similar in return despite the broken, abject fear Cisco can see hidden behind it. The expression lodges something tight and unpleasant in Cisco's throat, but he speaks past it with one more pat to Harry's shoulder before he's turning to leave. "Take all the time you need."


	2. too soon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cisco breaks the news, Jesse takes it better than anyone thought she would - including herself.

This time, Cisco finds him in the store room Harry had converted to his makeshift home when he first came to Earth One. Harry hasn’t slept here in ages, but the signs of life from two years prior still make it feel normal to see him sitting on the cot. The man had been bouncing between sleeping at Joe’s house to help with Cecille and crashing on Cisco’s couch when Cindy wasn’t around, but somehow, he always comes back to where he started. Staring down at his hands, as lost as Cisco had ever seen him. Cisco steps in quietly, leaning in the doorway.

            “Harry?”

            He doesn’t look up. Instead, Harry closes his fingers around the empty space in his palm, then opens them flat again. Cisco isn’t sure what Harry sees there, but he knows that it can’t be good. It takes Harry a moment to speak, but when he does he’s quiet, reserved. More than Cisco has ever seen him, even when he lost Jesse.

            “You said on my own time, Cisco.” He emphasizes each word like he’s afraid he’s going to lose them, but the effect makes them more like a knife - sharp, and digging into the soft spot Cisco has for him. “My own time.” He repeats it, and Cisco hears the second meaning hidden there, even if he doesn’t understand it yet. Harry still hasn’t looked up at him.

            Frustration builds quick in his belly - the kind that lends impatience to anger and bubbles into something ugly Cisco doesn’t like to see in himself. He’s felt it more and more recently, with Barry and the whole ordeal with Dibney. He felt it with HR. And feeling it now, with Harry? Nauseates him. He doesn’t want his relationship with Harry turning into something he can’t look forward to. He remembers very distinctly when it wasn’t, and going back to that isn’t in his life plan.

            “We don’t have any more of that, Harry,” he speaks softly, quietly, sitting beside the man on his cot and placing a hand between them. Heat radiates off Harry’s body, and Cisco wants to touch but he can’t bring himself to do it. Unwarranted physical contact makes Harry nervous and uncomfortable, and Cisco has no doubt that now is one of those times Harry isn’t expecting or desiring of a touch. Instead he pitches his voice low, a technique he picked up from the late, horrible Eobard Thawne, but credits to HR. Soft, comforting.

            “With DeVoe on top of us, with Ralph gone and Barry spiraling, Cait without her powers, and everything else on top of it-” he doesn’t want to say anything about Cindy. Their parting may have been amicable and months in the making, but it’s still sore. “Time isn’t something any of us can afford, Harry.” He sees Harry’s head tilt in a nod in his direction and Cisco takes it as a success to continue. “I’m sorry I did what I did,” outing him to the team. “But Harry, we don’t have the luxury of waiting.”

            Cisco doesn’t want to think about how long it takes Harry to process the information he’s given him. He doesn’t want to think that Harry is degenerating so quickly, and decides that processing feelings takes a while for everyone, and maybe that if Harry is taking the time to think before he speaks it’s a step in the right direction.

            “What if we don’t call Jesse?” Harry asks after a moment, and Cisco groans.

            “We’ve been over this, Harry-”

            “No, hear me out, Ramon,” he interrupts, twisting to finally look at the other engineer. “A Wells is the right idea, but what if it’s not the Wells you’re thinking of?”

            It doesn’t take Cisco long to catch the drift. “You’re talking about the Council?” Harry’s expression briefly shifts to a grimace, but he nods.

            “Fine,” Cisco agrees quicker than Harry had expected him too and the grimace turns into surprise. This was easier than he thought it would be. “But-” Oh. “I’m still calling Jesse. She’s your daughter Harry, and you said it yourself: you want to see her again.” Before he can’t remember her is the unspoken clause to the argument that neither of them wants to think about. “She deserves to know. And after all - she’s a Wells. She deserves a spot on the Council too.”

            Harry grimaces again. He doesn’t want to think about that. Jesse would undoubtedly make fun of him for making friends with himself, when that was certainly wasn’t what she meant when she told him he had to get a wider social circle. Not to mention, he really doesn’t want her in the same room as Lothario, especially after the incident(s) with his dick out.

            But Cisco has a point. Jesse had always been brilliant, bright. Smarter than he ever was, or ever will be again. He shoves that particular thought from his mind and sighs, passing a hand over his face. Cisco is right, even if his rightness relies on semantics. Jesse can help, and she deserves to be in the know about his situation. Accepting that is the part that’s difficult.

            “Fine,” he grinds out after a moment, staring back down at his hands as though it hurts to look at Cisco and admit that he’s right about this. It does hurt, scrapes at the hollowing confines of his skull, screaming the wrongness of all of this. He’s the one that should be right - that’s how it’s always been.

            “Call her.”

 

Cisco doesn’t call so much as he breaches right over to Earth Two and launches the meta Jesse was herding right into the arms of the waiting detective West-Allen. There’s a gun in his face in an instant, but Iris on this Earth is as smart as the Iris on his. She doesn’t pull the trigger, puts her gun down when Cisco takes his goggles off.

            “Francisco,” she nods her greeting, even though she’s clearly exasperated. She boots and books the meta faster than Cisco has ever even seen Joe work, and he wonders not for the first time why his own detective West never let his daughter join the force. Iris touches her ear and Cisco is surprised to feel the familiar vibrations of a comm link. “Got him, Quick. With some help from a friend.”

            “What?” Cisco can feel the response more than hear it. “Who’s-” A flash of lightning. “Here?” Jesse pushes her bangs out of her face when she comes to a halt in front of Iris. But she’s already smiling at Cisco, even though he can see the guarded look in her eyes. “Cisco! How are you?”

            When she hugs him, Cisco understands why Harry didn’t want to pull her into this. Jesse’s arms are stronger than he remembers them being and she’s full of smiles. Whatever Harry had shared with her after Flashtime had mended their relationship and a lot of Jesse’s insecurities. Closure. He suddenly doesn’t want to tell her what’s happening with her father. He remembers HR apologizing for taking the smile off of her face. He understands that, too.

            Before he has time to respond, Jesse bounces away from Cisco and in a bolt of lightning punches out the meta stirring into consciousness on the ground.

            “Hold that thought-!” She’s gone again before Cisco can say anything, taking the criminal over her shoulder and bolting.

            Cisco thinks he should be used to that by now, but it’s still annoying when any speedster does it.

            “So, you’re part of team Quick?” He asks Iris, to fill the silence.

            “Jesse and the Quicksters.”

            “I knew it-”

            “No, Cisco, we’re team Quick,” Iris gets a laugh out of his disappointment, but her smile stays in place afterwards. “Yes- doctor Wells must have been impressed enough with us - Barry and I were both conscripted, along with a few others.” She shrugs, finally holsters her gun and pulls her keys out of her jacket pocket. “Come on, Jesse will meet us back at HQ.”

            Cisco isn’t sure why he expects Iris to head to STAR, but when he sends her a questioning glance as she turns out of the city and into the wooded highway in a direction that makes his stomach turn, she shakes her head.

            Cisco doesn’t ask questions. If they were on his Earth, he would know where they’re headed.

            Turns out on this one it’s the same.

            Jesse is waiting in front of the house when they pull up. Cisco quickly amends his first assessment though - house sells this place too short. Where on Cisco’s earth, Eobard Thawne had furnished an almost tacky post-modern minimalist mansion no doubt a familiar comfort from the future, Harry had managed to put in its place, on his own earth, something that made Fallingwater look like a shack. Cisco knew that the forests on Earth Two - even wooded areas outside of cities - were much more impressive, but this was something else entirely.

            Jesse has already changed out of her suit and is finishing up a power bar when Iris and Cisco meet her at the front door.

            “This is your HQ?” Cisco asks, staring up at the clearly billion dollar home.

            “Nah, it’s around back.” Jesse grins and takes off at a casual pace, indicating Cisco and Iris follow.

            Iris walks beside her, clearly knowing where she’s going. Cisco walks behind the two women, taking in everything he can. There’s the regular sounds of the forest - birds, trees creaking as they sway in the wind, a babbling brook somewhere in the near distance - but on top of it there’s something else: the whir of machinery Cisco determines is an AC unit and the quiet thumping of what sounded like swing music. When he first came here he thought it might just be a select aesthetic, but no matter how far advanced they were socially, economically, and technologically, Earth Two was in the middle of an art revolution.

            “We couldn’t put the base in the lab like you guys, since the company is still fully functioning,” Jesse was saying as she led them around the house, pulling Cisco out of his reverie regarding Harry’s property limits. “So dad just put us in his basement lab.”

            “Basement lab?” Cisco is so used to Harry hustling pool for burger money that the idea of an entire basement lab has him reeling. This is Harry’s home, he realizes, as he walks through an immaculately kept garden behind Jesse and Iris. This is too private. Too close to a man he knows so well but so little. He feels strange being here, like he’s invading. He almost doesn’t want to turn the corner of the house to follow Jesse in, but the babbling of the water he thought was in the distance has only grown louder, drowning out the sound of the music that was playing.

            Jesse didn’t respond, and as soon as Cisco turned the corner, he knew why.

            True to his dramatic fashion the man wouldn’t admit he had, there was a waterfall running below Harry’s house. Not just below, but through. The stream Cisco had heard ran under the mansion, the foundation of the home raises slightly and on each bank of the running water. Harry had built his home over a fresh water stream, and the water toppled over the side of a short rock face, just a little taller than the man himself. Cisco watches as Jesse presses a button in the rock face and a metal door swings up, parting the flow of water to either side and revealing a staircase that leads to a lower level. She’s grinning, waiting for Cisco’s response.

            “Very… Bond.”

            As if this is the satisfying response she expected, Jesse leads them down.

            The basement lab is more Bond than the water parting cellar door. It’s like the cortex had a baby with the time vault and Cisco’s workshop, but Harry must have had this place for much longer than he’s been working with the team because, despite how immaculate and shiny things appeared to be, there are scratches and signs of wear on the work benches. In the corner, a large dusty tarp covers a large, abandoned project. But the room is massive, no doubt spanning the size of Harry’s home.

            The music was coming from here, fast paced swing that Cisco finds someone tapping his foot to the beat, in front of a central computer complex. Cisco thinks it’s strange to see Barry Allen sitting sedentary, with glasses on his face no less, but he remembers the sweet nature of the Barry on this Earth and smiles.

            “Hey Barry,” Jesse greets when they’re within earshot. “Found your wife.”

            Barry looks up with a smile, but he ends up jumping with in fright when he sees Cisco. “You!” He gasps, getting to his feet with such haste Cisco’s mind adds the lightning bolt on it’s own. “What are _you_ doing here?”

            Cisco clears his throat while Iris hushes her husband. “I uh, came to see Jesse, actually,” he explains, nodding in her direction.

            “Chill, Barry,” it always seems so strange how quickly Jesse took to Earth One’s slang in the short time she was there. She leans against the console desk and smiles at Cisco, looking for a brief moment so much like her father that something squeezes in his chest at the sight of her. “So, Cisco, whatcha need?”

            This would have been so much easier if Cisco had just agreed to sending an invitation cube like Harry had asked him to. It wouldn’t hurt nearly as much, or be quite so awkward. How does he tell someone their father has a self-inflicted, rapid acting neurodegenerative disorder the likes of which no one has ever seen before? He wishes Harry was with him, that he would explain this all himself.

            “It’s uh, actually a personal matter,” he explains, shooting a glance at the West-Allens of earth two.

            Jesse seems to understand, and casts a short smile to Iris and Barry. “I’ll be right back, guys.” She says, pushing off the counter to lead Cisco to another archway with another staircase, this time leading up.

            The inside of Harry’s house is just as lavish as the outside, but somehow still homey. Where Thawne had been exuberant in his wealth inside and out, Harry clearly at least took the time to buy expensive furnishings that didn’t _look_ expensive. Cisco was still afraid to sit on the couch when Jesse offered it, only perching himself on the edge when she threw herself down and curled up with such familiar comfort that he could try and manage the same. He’s uncertain in this place, but the permeating smell of _Harry_ surrounding him, the smell of cologne and workshop and warmth he’s grown so familiar with in the lab, has him attempting to relax.

            “It’s about my dad, isn’t it?”

            She’s just like her father, Cisco will give her that. Brilliant, brighter than the sun, but something more – Jesse is intuitive in a way that Harry never will be. Growing up with the affection of both of her parents, the influence of her mother on top of her father’s love and support and education, gave her something Harry has never shown he has. It breaks Cisco’s heart every time he speaks with her.

            “Yeah, Jesse, he um-“ Cisco doesn’t want to do this. He really doesn’t want to do this, but the necessity is pounding at his skull. “Here’s the thing…”

 

Jesse is packed and has said goodbye to the West-Allens before Cisco can take his face out of his hands and rise up off the couch. The conversation had been about as difficult as he had expected it to be, but it doesn’t make it feel any better that she’s ready to go. The more he spends time here… the more difficult it feels to face Harry when they get back. He can see the little signs of life Harry had left his daughter when he came back to Earth-One. He’d said Jesse had kicked him out of the team, away from his home, but Cisco hadn’t expected it to be so literal. He’d left sticky notes in his wake, reminders for Jesse in how to maintain the house and herself and the team. There were two on the coffee table that he couldn’t bring himself to read after the one on the lamp stand that reminded her the lights were on a timer and not to worry about them.

            Cisco’s heart clenches at the familiar handwriting. Jesse is back at his side in an instant. She looks like a warrior – face set in a stern expression, shoulders and back straight, ready to pounce. But she also looks like a daughter, afraid for the life of the man that raised her. He can see the shimmer in her eyes, the held back tears. Jesse nearly lost her father not a few weeks ago, and now this?

            Not for the first time, Cisco is hit with a wave of anger at the man for making that stupid cap. He feels a sense of vindication that Harry will have to face his daughter with this. Guilt wipes away both in an instant. That’s not fair to Harry. It was DeVoe’s plan, after all.

            Jesse doesn’t speak, just nods when she’s ready, and Cisco is opening a breach directly back to the store room. It’s better to bypass the team at this point. They know what’s going on, but they don’t need to be in the middle of this reunion.

            Harry is where Cisco left him a few hours before, no longer staring at his hands but down at the picture of he and his wife that Jesse had left him two years prior. Cisco isn’t sure why the sight of Harry there twists something in his gut, but he has to look away from him. Harry doesn’t look up until Jesse drops her bag on the cot she used to sleep in on this Earth.

            “How could you?”

            With that, Cisco takes his leave. He makes sure Harry sees his nod of confidence before he turns to go, and then vanishes around the corner, back to the cortex where the team is waiting for him.

            Harry stares. He figures it’s unsettling for Jesse to be looked at like that, but he stares anyway. She looks so much like her mother, it’s unsettling. There are little things he sees of himself there in her face. His nose, his eyes, the way she glares at him with such intensity that he swears he can feel his skin burning. But it’s her mother he sees in her gaze now, the determined way she sets her jaw and how her hands land on his hips with impatience and frustration. She’s the last reminder he has of his wife.

            “I did what I thought I had to.” He replies, his chest tightening. They go through this routine – Jesse gets upset at him, he explains himself, Jesse remains upset, and then a little while later they come together to comfort each other. Except this time, she breaks the routine. She sits beside him on the bed and wraps her arms around him, face pressed into his shoulder. He’s always been affectionate with his daughter, and he’s glad for the comfort she presents, however fleeting.

            “I know you did,” Jesse sighs, and there’s defeat there, but something else. Understanding. They’d come to a quiet compromise after Flashtime, a better grasp on who they were to each other. Jesse had almost lost him once before, he didn’t blame her for being upset at the prospect of losing him again. “I just – I’m scared, daddy.” she whispers, reaching down to take his hand. She’s so small compared to him, but already he can feel the callouses building up on her fingertips and her palms from the work she’s been doing in the city and in school. He’s so proud of her it makes his chest hurt.

            “Me too, Jesse,” Harry sighs, resting his head on hers and patting her hand gently with his free one. He’s more scared than he would admit to anyone else, but with her? “Me, too.”


End file.
